Review by Woodrow Phoenix
Sara is an only child, the young daughter of a couple who are both research scientists. Her parents have another trip coming up, but this time it means Sara is going to have to move schools. She won’t even get one last summer at camp with her friends because she will be miles away spending it with her two aunts, Bea and Meg. Her parents feel a little guilty about this, and a little worried, but Sara is very confident. She has written all the steps for making friends in her notebook, and she has everything figured out. “I can practice making friends with the kids in town this summer, so I’ll be super good at it by the fall. And I’ll have new experiences, so I’ll be more interesting, so people will want to be my friend.” This plan is immediately destroyed on arriving at the harbour where she discovers her aunts live a boatride away on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere. No kids, in fact no people at all. Nobody except her mother’s sisters, two dogs, and some chickens on a chunk of wild and hilly land surrounded by a deep blue sea.
The island is hidden by a permanent barrier of very thick fog, and once through that barrier Sara gets the first of many surprises when the two dogs excitedly begin talking to her. How is this possible? “All we know is that things are kind of different on this side of the fog,” her Aunt Bea tells her. What lies behind that extremely understated explanation is a magically alive place where there is a subtle spirit animating the land and all the creatures that live on it. Sara’s guides to the mysteries of her temporary home are the two very chatty rescue dogs Sitstaygooddog and smaller brown companion Whatareyoueatingnonono – they named themselves, of course, based on how they were referred to at the animal shelter. But they go by ‘Sits’ and ‘Whatar’ for short.
Small Magics has an intriguing premise, with gently cartooned, watercoloured visuals that will remind you of the Studio Ghibli classic anime My Friend Totoro with a dash of Lilo and Stitch. Emily Tetri is a visual development and background artist for animation studios such as Cartoon Network, so you can understand how that background sits underneath this story.
At 260 pages there is space for Sara’s time on the island, her relationship with her aunts and the dogs to unfold in a series of funny little adventures with lots of atmosphere and some mild jeopardy that will take a while for young readers to get through. Older readers will have many questions that this book doesn’t even attempt to answer, but if you accept the general lack of curiosity shown by all the characters then Small Magics is a well-told, pleasant and undemanding read.
